


Sunset Lovers

by PineappleQueen17



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Red Hood/Arsenal (Comics)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Fluff, JayRoy Week, JayRoy Week 2018, M/M, mythology AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-26
Updated: 2019-02-11
Packaged: 2019-08-30 02:28:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,035
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16756141
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PineappleQueen17/pseuds/PineappleQueen17
Summary: The god of death may of accidentally fallen in love with the god of the sun. Persephone and Hades type of shenanigans ensue.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> JayRoy week took me by surprise! Still wanted to participate, so here this is.

The gods were never kind. To mortals they were largely indifferent, with occasional moments of benevolence or wrath; largely depending on the god and their whims. However, to each other? All bets were off. Kindness was weakness and they could not allow to be seen as weak. This tradition lead to the majority of problems in their lives. As such, gods never fell in love with one another, only occasionally granting a particularly favored mortal immortality. That is, of course, until two gods accidently fell in love.

***

It was night when the god of death, Jason, emerged from beneath the earth. He shook off some of the remaining dirt on his tunic and observed his surroundings. Jason had come out five miles away from the nearest town in order to avoid being seen. And with a slight grumble at the trek ahead of him, he began walking.

(Now it is important to note here the Jason was not as one normally imagined him. He rarely ever wore the large black cloak, and he was not a skeleton, or made solely of shadows as some depictions would have you believe. He was a bit taller than average, had a strong build, and had black hair, with only one streak of white to mark him as other. And he never used a scythe, he doesn’t know how that rumor came to be. He found a sword to be much more effective.)

Jason soon approached a particularly raucous tavern from which light and the sound of mirth spilled out. He entered the tavern, taking care to side swipe the pools of vomit outside the front door. Inside the area was lit with spattering of oil lamps.

But as soon as he entered the room he was directed to the focal point. Everyone, was either staring at him or purposely not staring at him and talking in hushed voices. The most light seemed to be emitted from where another man was sprawled. He was handsome, Jason would give him that, and had the long red hair that was beautiful despite being disheveled. The man seemed to be able to keep five different conversations straight, between twelve people. Jason dismissed the man. He had work to do, and it did not involve gorgeous strangers.

But it appeared the man had other ideas.

While Jason made his way to order a drink, the man finished up his conversations and sauntered over to the bar. 

“Hello there,” The red head said. “You come here often?” 

The bartender set a glass down in front of Jason. He tasted some of the alcohol. “Really?” He asked.

“What? Don’t I get points for trying?”

“No.”

“Can I least get a name?” The man asked with a fluttering of eyelashes. And something in Jason’s heart- twinged. It was not moved, or overly changed, but it did have a pang of unnameable something run through it.

And maybe that’s why he replied “Jason.”

The other man smiled like he had won something. “A goregous name to go with a goregous face,” He said. “I’m Roy by the way.” 

Jason finished his drink. “Well Roy, I’m afraid I have to get going soon.” Sure enough, he spotted his target. A man with uneven brown hair, and an waxy face was stumbling towards the door, where he would no doubt add to the pools of vomit outside. A man who go home and begin beating his wife, if no one stopped him. And it was Jason’s intent from returning home that night. 

Roy’s face fell. “You just got here, are you sure that I can’t get you another drink?” He asked.

He shook his head. “Sorry, I was just waiting for a friend. Maybe we’ll see each other around.” He doubted he would ever see that man again. Greece was large, and there plenty of people who needed a harsher type of justice. With a nod of farewell he went out into the night.

Jason started tailing his target immediately. The man was staggering in zig-zags and barely able to keep on his feet. So Jason waited, and waited, until the man fell. He swooped in, like a hawk to help the man to his feet.

“May the gods bless you,” The drunk slurred. 

There was an alleyway, not to far from where they were standing, that Jason directed the man towards.

He was bleary eyed, and unable to walk. He was defenseless. He didn’t even see the sword that was made out of shadows at all. He might of not even have noticed it had Jason not plunged it into his ribs. 

The man let out a yelp, that faded into gurgled, that soon turned into nothing at all. Jason sheathed his sword, and walked into the darkness.

***

It was another night and Jason was pissed. He and his father had gotten in another fight. Again. About how Jason should really consider changing his jobs to escorting people to the underworld. Let nature take its course and let Bruce make the decisions on what punishment people deserve. Maybe be like his brothers and sister, chasing after the ones in the mortal world and rough them up a little bit, or turn them over to the mortals version of the law.

And Jason would say maybe these people wouldn’t change. That they didn’t deserve another chance, that they deserved it. How they needed to be stopped from hurting anyone else. And how maybe if Bruce didn’t like what he did, he shouldn’t of made him a god. 

It ended like all there other fights, with Jason storming away and both of them seething mad.

Deep down he was tired. Tired of his father always wanting him to be better than he was, more like his siblings. As kind as Dick, as smart as Tim, as talented as Cass, and able to change his ways like Daiman. They all found their spots within their mis-match family with ease. Something Jason never seemed to do.

Tonight he didn’t want to think about that. Tonight he wanted to get drunk and forget about his problems. And he knew exactly how he would do that.

The tavern he visited a week ago was just like before, loud and bright. He entered to see the same man in the same position as before.

Jason went to the bar. It wasn’t long before he felt the presence of a man beside him.

“Didn’t think I’d see you again,” He said.

Jason shrugged. “I thought coming here might bring entertainment.”

“What type of entertainment?” Roy asked with sly grin.

“Haven’t made up my mind yet.” He wondered if the other man would take the bait.

“I think I might have an idea or two.”

He gave him a lazy smile. “Would said entertainment be found upstairs?”

“Why indeed it would.”

“Then lead the way.”

Roy went to the innkeeper and  rented a room for the night, then practically dragged Jason upstairs. As soon as they reached their room and the door was shut and the fun began.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wanted to mention that the title was inspired by a Natsby fic, (Nick Caraway/Jay Gatsby), which features a bunch of vintage slang for gay people. I thought the title would work really well for this piece, so yeah, I just wanted to credit them for inspiring the title.


	2. Chapter 2

The next morning when Jason woke up he was convinced it was still night. Through the window he could only see darkness, not even moon shone. It was strange, because he  _ felt  _ like it should be later.

Roy shifted around in the bed, his wild red hair obscuring his face. He mumbled with into the pillow. “Is it morning?”

Jason shook his head. “No, its strange. The sun hasn’t risen yet.”  He was frowning, gods were rarely wrong about this kind of thing.

“Shit!” Roy hissed, as he bolted upwards up. He scrambled out of bed, his red hair sticking out every which way. He hurriedly got his clothes, on but was shaking as he did so.

Jason frowned. ”Are you late for something?”

“Um, yeah. Sorry, but I really need to leave right now.”

Jason didn’t understand the rush, it was still night, surely whatever it was could wait until morning. But he did feel a little guilty for causing him to be late. “Listen, maybe I can help-”

“No!” The other man shouted. He quickly realized how rude that sounded, so he attempted to explain himself while strapping on a sandal. It was a strange sight, to see him hopping on one foot as he put it on. “I mean, thanks for the offer but I have to go alone.” He shook his head. “I know I’m not making any sense, but I’ve got to go. Bye!” And he was out the door and gone.

Jason shook his head and went back to sleep.

But, it couldn’t of been more than five minutes before the sun began to rise, straight into his eyelids. He sighed, Jason preferred to do his work at night, away from both the prying eyes of gods and mortals. Unable to sleep, he went downstairs to the tavern where he could smell eggs frying, freshly baked bread, and burnt bacon. That was perhaps one of his favorite parts of the mortal world, was how things could exist without overpowering things. In his father’s house everything was perfect, not a flaw to be found anywhere. But in the deeper parts of the underworld, the heat and stench and  _ everything,  _ was overwhelming. It was nice to be in a place where imperfection could live alongside the good things.

Jason sat down at one of the smaller tables and waited to be served. The innkeeper, an old man, with graying hair and sagging jowls, came up to him and greeted him. “You notice anything weird this morning?” He croaked.

Jason furrowed his brow. “You mean the sun? It did seem to come up suddenly.”

“And late,” The man said. “The chickens were crowing and all the animals woke up far before the sun did.”

“Strange.” He said, and left it that. 

Jason ordered a breakfast and sat eating it slowing. He munched. And chewed. And swallowed. And pondered. By the end of the breakfast he had reached a conclusion. Whatever his annoying brothers might try to say, Jason was not stupid. He had figured out who Roy was. The sun god being late at the same time, Roy was panicking over being late for something? The gods rarely interacted with one another outside of individual clans or business, so it’s not a big surprise he has no idea what the sun god looks like. Besides, he was fairly young for a God, it had only been 500 or so years since Bruce made him immortal, so there was no reason for them to of ever met. But, he had the stories of the sun god. How he had hair the same color as a sunset, and a smile that could blind you. He and his sister were also the gods of archery, and Jason had seen enough archers to know that Roy had the arms of a very good archer.

Really, the only acceptable course of action was to leave, and never return to the tavern and never talk to Roy again. It would be a shitshow if the other gods found out. The  _ drama  _ that would ensue. And there were reasons god didn’t marry one another, unless they felt strong enough about the mortal to make them a god. A lovers quarrel could turn out very, very deadly for mortals, and very, very messy for the gods. It was always safer to leave the others alone.

However, Jason wasn’t one for the ‘safer’ or ‘acceptable’ courses of action. And, it created one hell of an opportunity. Dating the sun god and disgreading the gods long honored tradition of never speaking to one another unless in times of either great crisis of fighting one another, would most certainly piss everyone off. Including Bruce.

This was a lot more complicated than he wanted.

***

Later that night, when Roy returned, Jason didn’t even let him sit down before dragging him back up to the same room as before. As soon as they got up there, Jason slammed the door shut and glared. Roy’s bemused grin slowly faded.

“Uh, is something wrong?” He finally asked.

“Yes.” Jason snapped.

Roy started fidgeting with his hands. “And what would that be?”

“I know who you are.”

In the span of about five seconds, an expression of surprise, confusion, fear, and then finally confusion went across his face. “So, one, how did you find out? And second, are you seriously trying to threaten  _ me _ ?”

“One, I found it out cause your a dumbass, two, no I’m not. But I’m saying that does leave us with a big problem.”

“Come on, how big of a problem can it be? Gods take human lovers all the time, it’s no big deal?”

Jason sighed. Rather than try to explain the situation he just held out his hand and watched Roy’s expression as black flame danced across his palm.

“Oh shit,” Was all the other man could say.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Roy and Jason have small talk and bond.

Jason and Roy just stared at each other, waiting for the other one to say something. Roy broke first.

“So now what?” He asked.

“How should I know!”

“Wait,” Roy eyed the other man carefully. “It means something that you told me your a god too. I have no idea what though.”

Jason shook his head and started running his fingers through his hair. “So we’re finally on the same page at least.”

“No not really, I mean no offense, but I don’t know anything about you.”

“Fair enough. So let’s talk.”

There was a small table in the room, and they both sat down. Jason summoned a bottle of wine and a couple of glasses and they started drinking.

Roy started. “So, I’m the sun god. Um, I do a lot of archery, it’s sort of a family tradition. I became a god like 600 years ago? Not one hundred percent sure. But um yeah.”

“I’m one of Bruce’s kids.”

“Huh, well that explains it.”

The other man frowned. “Explains what?”

The red haired man’s cheeks matched his hair. “Um no offense, but no one is really sure how many siblings do you have? At this point I think everyone is too afraid to ask.”

Jason rolled his eyes. “Can’t blame you there. Currently there’s Dick, Tim, Damian, Cassandra and me. And then there are the mortals who are basically in training, and that’s Duke, Harper, and Terry. Everyone always forgets those three. Oh! And there’s Stephanie.”

“Which group is Stephanie in?”

“Neither? It’s weird. She’s not one of Bruce’s kid, she used to date Tim, and now she’s dating Cass. She kind of just grew on everyone, so now she’s a part of the family.”

“Wow, that's- that’s a lot of siblings.”

“Eh, yeah. So how about you? I know you have a sister but who else?”

“Just my adoptive dad and mom. You know Oliver and Dinah?”

“Huh, it’s weird, I’m used to more people I guess. Did we miss anything?”

Roy took a breath. “I mean, I guess I’m a little confused about  _ why  _ there are so many of you guys. Like, six gods of death and three apprentices seems a bit like overkill if you ask me.”

Jason chugged back what was left in his glass and refilled it. “The thing is, we all have our own little niches. Dick, guides those are were performers: athletes, comedians, and actors. Tim has the inventors, and geniuses. Damian has the kids and animals, but that's only because he’s the youngest. He’ll probably change it when he’s older. Cassandra helps wherever she thinks needs it. And of course Bruce deals with everything else. They don’t kill anyone, they guide the souls to the underworld and pass judgement, or find them and have them imprisoned in the mortal world.”

The wine was starting to get to Roy. His next question came out half muffled. “And you?”

The other man was quite for a while, the only sound was of him sloshing the wine in the bottom of the cup. “And I’m the god of vengeful deaths. Of everyone who deserves a painful death and an even worse eternity.” His tone was filled with bitterness.

Roy was silent. He closed his eyes. “I’m not just the god of light and archery. I’m also the god of false promises and dashed dreams.” He opened his eyes to let them twinkle. He gave the other god, a sad, crooked grin. “Most of the time things are shitty and ‘sunshine and rainbows’ won’t fix things.”

Jason just stared at him.

Roy rolled his eyes. “What I’m trying to say, you’re not the only emo god, with some deep ‘dark side’ or whatever. We all have shit we’re not proud of that we have to deal with.”

“Who said I’m ashamed of being vengeful and whatever.” Jason asked, bristling.

The other man pinched the bridge of his nose. “You know what I mean. Whatever,” He let out a heavy breath, like all the air was being squeezed out of him. “It’s going to be morning soon, and I can’t make a habit of being late. I guess this is where we part ways, my friend.”

The last two words slammed into Jason’s chest like a punch. After everything, he feels like they were a little more than ‘friends’. He decided to ignore them. He was pretty good at ignoring things. “How can you tell that it’s morning soon? Sun god magic?” He asked, trying to make it a joke. It wasn’t a very good one.

“Ha, ha. Whatever, I’ll see you around.” The unsaid ‘maybe’ hung in the air between them.

Words caught in his throat, but after a moment he was able to force the words out. “If you ever want to talk, just go down to talk with Alfred and say you’re a friend of mine; he's the ferryman out front. But if you see my brothers, you should probably start running.”

“And if I see your dad?”

“Try not to start a war.” It was both a joke and the truth.

They shared an awkward hug, that both gods secretly enjoyed. Roy left and in a few minutes Jason watched from the window as the sun began to rise.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone who wrote comments or gave kudos, they mean so much to me and I really appreciate them!


End file.
